"Ever-Present Ghosts" with Josh Halpern & Friends

Ever-Present Ghosts

featuring Josh Halpern & Friends (full artist roster to be announced)

In 1946, the composer Alfred Schnittke moved to Vienna to continue his musical studies. The city’s history and culture was immensely inspiring to him. He wrote, “I felt every moment there to be a link of the historical chain: all was multi-dimensional; the past represented a world of ever-present ghosts, and I was not a barbarian without any connections, but the conscious bearer of the task in my life." 

This program explores the concept of influence and homage through pieces based on pre-existing music, as well as pieces written in tribute to lovers, friends, and teachers. Framed by absolutely gorgeous 16th-century songs by Thomas Tallis and his student, William Byrd, we share stories of Bach's Chaconne, written as he grieved the death of his wife; Alfred Schnittke's homage to his mother, through his almost religiously meditative piano quintet; and Schnittke's completion of Gustav Mahler's only piece of chamber music, his piano quartet—which Schnittke completed more than a half-century after Mahler set it aside.

Program:

Thomas Tallis: Audivi vocemI

I.  Audivi

II. Vocem de caelo

Gustav Mahler: Piano Quartet in A minor

Alfred Schnittke: Piano Quartet

~Intermission~

Johannes Brahms: 5 Studies for Piano, No. 5, Chaconne by J.S. Bach

Alfred Schnittke: Piano Quintet

William Byrd: Ye Sacred Muses

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